Road to peace in Aceh

Road to peace in Aceh

President Megawati Soekarnoputri, when she was about to be
elected to lead the country, promised that she would not let a
single drop of blood fall on Acehnese soil, and that she would
not repeat the mistakes of her predecessors -- probably including
the faults of her own father, Indonesia's founding President
Sukarno -- is scheduled to embark on her fourth visit to the
conflict stricken province this week.

In her first major speech after her party, the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), won the 1999
general elections, Megawati avowed that under her leadership Aceh
would become a peaceful land for the devout Muslims in that
territory.

"The Aceh problem is clear evidence of the failure of the New
Order government and its successor to uphold the law and
justice," Megawati said.

If she is really willing to acquire honest information from
the people, and not just from the local military and government
officials, she will find that the blood of the Acehnese people is
still soaking their soil. But when the President remains rigid in
her obsession that Indonesia should remain a unitary state at any
cost, she easily forgets her own promise to end the suffering of
the Acehnese.

It seems that it should be truly embarrassing for Megawati
that she has only been able to make empty promises to those
innocent people, just as her four predecessors did. Her
government's historic peace agreement with the Free Aceh Movement
(GAM) has nearly become nothing more than scratch paper since her
Cabinet ministers, and especially the Indonesian military (TNI)
top brass, have repeatedly reminded her that they did not see the
need to continue the implementation of the five-month old peace
accord. To them, GAM is the enemy of the state, and only military
methods, not civilian, can silence the rebels even though facts
have proved that such an approach has worsened situation in the
last 26 years.

Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Gen.
(ret.) Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who initially showed encouraging
seriousness to implement the peace accord, has stepped up his
criticism against GAM. The TNI has openly expressed its
disagreement with Susilo's policy of rapprochement towards the
rebels, and the minister does not want to risk his political
career by remaining defiant against military opposition. The
President herself has not said anything about the latest
developments in the province, but to judge by her ministers' new,
tough stance we cannot hope much from her either.

As it has turned out, the Acehnese people have only been able
to enjoy a relatively peaceful life for about three months after
the signing of the agreement in Geneva in December last year.
Currently, thousands of people are fleeing their homes in Pidie
and Central Aceh following fresh armed clashes between the TNI
and GAM. Thousands, if not tens of thousands of people were
killed in the province since 1977, and the number is likely to
increase again.

It is truly saddening to read the reports in this newspaper on
Thursday that 41 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Aceh
have gotten to the point that they are now trying to make a
desperate last-ditch plan to salvage the agreement. The point is,
why do the NGOs have to take the responsibility for maintaining
the peace in Aceh rather than the government? The activists,
mostly young people, feel more obliged than the Cabinet to
prevent more violence and atrocities in the troubled territory.

On the other hand, we can be proud of those activists and hope
that they will be able to unite the people in the province,
because now, the last chance to salvage the peace lies with the
people, although the road to peace could be very long and tiring.

We know that those NGO activists are endangering their own
lives by exposing themselves to all sorts of action by either GAM
or the TNI, or both, because as they publicly push for peace they
endanger their respective organizations.

We hope that local administrators, from governors and regents
to public leaders there, will work together with the people to
pressure the central government to save the peace accord. Despite
the poor credibility of the local administration in the eyes of
the people in Aceh, the NGOs can not just bypass them in their
struggle for peace.

Also, without the assistance of the international community it
will be very hard, if not impossible, for any grass-roots
organizations to work for peace in the province. Strong and
effective international pressure on Indonesia will be most
helpful in their tough mission to stop the violence there.

The co-hosts of the Tokyo Conference on Aceh, including Japan
and the U.S., have urged both the Indonesian government and GAM
not to abandon the peace efforts. However, as the U.S. itself is
using violence in Iraq, that country is obviously not in a
comfortable position to lecture the Indonesian government about
the use of peaceful means.

Honestly speaking, we still regard the Henry Dunant Centre-
brokered peace accord as the only road map towards peace in Aceh.
However, when both warring parties have lost their trust in the
agreement, peace can only be a daydream for the people in this
country's westernmost territory.

Given the situation, the efforts of the young NGO activists
are truly laudable. They are facing a very tough job trying to
unite the people. People in Aceh deserve the sincere help of all,
both from within Indonesia and from the international community.